Slocum Glider AUV Tested by Navy

A recent press
release from the Office of Naval Research has spawned two new
stories about Slocum Gliders in Cosmiverse
and Cyber
Diver News. In addition to the Slocum Glider, which
has been covered at robots.net in the past, the articles
mention another Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), the University of
Washington Applied Physics Laboratory's Seaglider.
The Seaglider is interesting in that it uses dead reckoning while
underwater, occasionally checking its position by surfacing and
obtaining a GPS fix. Both AUVs were originally designed for long-term
oceanographic research but are being tested by the Navy for possible
military applications such as mine countermeasure operations.